New England, June 2016

Welcome to June!  The weather is beautiful although the Cape is currently the land of winter moth worm poop, pine pollen & oak beards.  Not easy for gardening unless you get out really early in the morning, which I like to do.  

My SFG is in full swing including peppers, tomatoes, green beans, cukes and squashes.  But the sprouting seeds are getting eaten by something.  I'm thinking pill bugs, so I'm doing an experiment and will sprinkle coffee grounds around the next planting.  I know that that will work for slugs but not sure about pill bugs.  I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, the weekly salad bucket is full of leafies & walking onions, this romaine is awaiting washing for tonights Ceasar Salad, and baby kale is in the blender for a nutritious smoothie:

All is well in my little corner of New England. Well...except for squirrel digging up my pepper and mallow plants.

What are the rest of you up to?

Finally figured out how to post pictures from the new phone. Yahoo 


Tomatoes and grape vines with apple, pear and peach trees in the background.


Brassica, lettuce, kale, garlic, beets, carrots, chard, radishes, peppers, eggplant, basil, peppers


Strawberry bed, corn, peppers, watermelon and if they ever germinate, hopefully lots of green beans.

It is a beautiful morning, 63 degrees, low humidity and sunny with a little breeze. Just perfect! Wishing I could spend the morning in the garden instead of having to go to work.

Beautiful! I wish I could spend a 63 degree morning outside, too. It doesn't even get down that low in the middle of the night, here anymore. 

Saying hi since i started lurking again. I had plans of greatness for super gardening this year and things already started failing. Mostly the seeds i started. April was a bad month for keeping up with tomatoes and peppers inside(illnesses and travel, plus three kids) so i'm going to the farm stand this weekend to get things. i do have some things going... peas, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, carrots, squash and eggplant. but fighting off all the bugs. and this week the random caterpillars have been crazy. they fall right out of the trees on to every thing and everyone. So not really encouraging to go outside. even my three year old is getting over them being everywhere. 

I'll go back to lurking and watching everyones gardens grow. Maybe one day when my life(or i should say my kids's lives) is calmer i'll have more time to garden right.

Lyndeeloo, looking good!

Sdugas, you are good! Just do what you can, it should be fun! I remember those days, believe me! Enjoy your kids, and the garden is whatever the garden is! Lurk or post, we would love to hear from you!

I echo SR. Sdugas, just do the best you can and the garden will be what the garden will be. Kids and life are more important at this time. One day, the kids are off living their own lives and you will have more time to attend to the veggies.

Lyndeeloo, beautiful garden! The netting must really help keep critters out.

Lyndeeloo, your garden is lovely as always!  Where do you get your spring clamps?
FYI, last year's 3 raspberry canes that I left up as an experiment have flowers and fruits now.  This year's canes don't have flowers yet.

Had to click and run from the garden this morning due to dive bombing mosquitos!

Tom's, beets, chard and remaining 2 out of 5 cabbages (due to cabbage root maggots I think):

Red onions, Yukon Gold potatoes, black seeded Simpson. The flowers are from bolted Pak choi that I need to collect seeds from.

Romaine and Tuscan kale.

Flowering daikon. Yummy pods are not far behind!

Pole beans sprouting across the front row. I was able to save them by sprinkling with coffee otherwise the pill bugs are eating them to death. Lettuce, garlic and scallions fill the rest of the bed. Recently sowed bush beans in empty spaces.

Picked a quart of strawberries from the garden this morning. 
Guess what's on the menu today... Starting to bake the biscuits now. My Mom loves strawberry shortcake, so it will be the surprise dessert for our lunch today.


CC your gardens are looking wonderful! Glad to hear about the raspberry plants. Some of mine are flowering now and I saw a few tiny berries this morning. The plastic clips are from the dollar tree. 8 pack for a buck, can't beat that price. They work well. The metal pony clamps are awesome but expensive at a regular price of about $3 each. Found them at Ace during their dollar sale and bought a dozen a few years back.

Thanks all for the nice comments. Sanderson, yes the netting works very nicely against all but the most determined chipmunks. There seems to be no stopping them. 

Those strawberries look delicious. Yum Yum.

WOW! those strawberries look AWESOME!!! That photo looks like it should be in a magazine!!

Sdugas, may I suggest that you plant a couple of things that will do really well in your area and need minimal maintenance. That way you get something growing in your garden, your kids can eat what grows and perhaps they will even take part in watering and harvesting. I know down here Squash grows really well and supposedly cucumbers. Best of luck

Thank you both! I am very happy with this years crop, its earlier and more prolific than in the past. Wish I could share them with you all.

Okay Lyndeeloo, you're not going to believe this but, after viewing your strawberries I decided I don't want little slug mouth and pill bug mouth bites out of mine. So I headed down to the nursery and picked up some Sluggo plus. I really didn't think I would ever do that but I don't know what else to do. I thought coffee had worked on my pole sprouts but once I watered they just come back. Anyway your strawberries are delectable!

CC, I know you hate to use the sluggo, but I don't blame you one bit. I'd do the same thing if I was battling slugs. I'm very protective of my strawberries. I've been chasing the chipmunks and adding more clips to the netting....you'd think it was Fort Knox. It is such a short season, hate to share them with the critters.

OK, Lyndeeloo, you have also inspired me to get my butt in gear, and I have always said my next 2 4x4s are 1) Strawberries, and 2) Asparagus! So. I am going to focus on priority number 1,which is a food that I enjoy immensely!

Also, beautiful photos everyone! Lovely!

The good thing about Sluggo Plus and strawberries, you can finger sprinkle a few granules under the leaves and the strawberries don't have to touch it.

Cold dreary day. Got lots done inside and outside the SFG in order to take advantage of the potential rain tonight.

SFG:

I'd do more but when you run out of calendar square that means stop...right?


Victory garden guy says it's time to start indoor cabbage, broccoli and whatevers for fall. Does anybody in NE do the that now?

Wow, I didn't realize how much I have become dependent on the automatic email notification for the threads.  I noticed yesterday that there hadn't been much coming to me from SFG.  I have been busy, and the garden has been one of the main reasons for being busy. When I went to the SFG site, I noticed that the reason for no notifications is that it is a new month. OK, I will file that for future reference.
I am almost done with all the planting I wanted to do. I am making some adjustments in how many and where. I have some new spots for plants, so I am busy, busy, busy-planting, preparing the new spots, cleaning up, taking notes, drawing diagrams for notes, taking pics, and watering to keep things moist.
I am also reaping the benefits of all the compost piles that have come to be ripe! I was greatly surprised by how much I got out of an older but smaller pile that was right next to one of my the garden spots. (It is very handy to have compost pile close, it makes it easy to put things in it. I don't have a lot of flat areas close to the house, so I have many spots where I have a few gardens.) I need to replace soil in some of my raised beds, and my small pile brought to 4X8 back up to the level I like. I have one more 4X8 that really needs some more, and I have two more small piles that I think will bring it up to a good level.
There are a few new plants I am trying  this year, sight unseen. This is a first for me. I very good friend who brought home some Japanese Pumpkin, which is another name for Kabocha.  Here is a link for it  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabocha  that has some info. He told me how good it tastes and that he is going to do a majority of his garden of just this squash. He gave me some seeds and 80% of them came up in planting trays, so now I have to find room for them, kind of a good problem to have. I have also given them to others who heard of them and wanted to try them. My only concern is I don't know if these seeds are hybrid or not.
Another friend gave me some heirloom tomato plants that seem to grow well around here that I have not tried, Emilio and Basignava. Also I was given some pear shaped and some Golden Yellows.
My green beans that were planted on the 1st started coming up Friday evening, and I got to watch them grow 2" during Saturday during the full day of sun and warmth. It always amazes me how fast they can grow.
The Mammoth Sunflowers also sprouted and got to 2" so I have been putting them in the northern edges and corners so they don't shade the others. There was a empty area in the middle of my asparagus patch so I planted two tomatoes there. I didn't hit any roots, so we will see. It doesn't always work well, but I do like to put things close together. Yesterday was a great day in the garden, I need more like it. Hope you all enjoy yours too. Rock

Scorpio Rising wrote:OK, Lyndeeloo, you have also inspired me to get my butt in gear, and I have always said my next 2 4x4s are 1) Strawberries, and 2) Asparagus!  So. I am going to focus on priority number 1,which is a food that I enjoy immensely!  

SR, since I was a little child I went strawberry picking with my parents and grandparents. Those strawberry shortcakes were so good. As I got older I would pick for freezing, baking and making my own jam.When I started SFG I wanted a strawberry bed so badly, so 4 years ago I bought a dozen or so plants. I was so disappointed that year, only a few berries. I thought, what a waste of garden space!!! Before giving up on it I did some research and found out it takes a few years for an established bed to really produce. So I decided to give it 3 years to convince me it was worthwhile. I'm convinced!

My space is 2 squares x 19 squares. Would definitely be bigger if I had more space. Early in the spring I spend one day cleaning up the bed, trimming plants, mulching with pine needles and top feeding with fresh compost. Other than occasionally waterings it gets ignored until the berries start ripening. I pick twice a day when they really start ripening. I am getting almost a quart a day right now. Mine are June bearing so I get one crop a year. 

Late summer early fall they start making runners. No need to buy more plants. I trim up the plants, clip the runners and plant them in between the other plants and pull out what ever looks dead or unhealthy. Got over 100 runners last year and was giving them away because I had no room left to plant any more. Just before the first frost I cover the bed with a thin layer of mowed leaves from my lawn.

The bed spends a lot of time really doing nothing but those sweet juicy berries, the homemade jam and a strawberry rhubarb pie make me believe its all worthwhile!

Hey Lyndeeloo, thanks for the great description of your wonderful strawberry garden. I wanted you to know that you gave me inspiration to make one.  It probably isn't going to happen this summer, but I will put it into the planning stage until I can read up about strawberries and find the best suited place for it and other important info. Rock

Hi Rock,

It certainly pays to do your homework and make a plan. I would have made a larger bed if I knew then what I know now. There are a lot of different varieties of strawberries to choose from. I have all June bearers, I probably should have planted some everbearers as well.

I really enjoy reading your posts, thank you for sharing.

Lyndeeloo, your bed is 2'x19' long? That is huge!

I had ever bearers only at the old house, not real satisfying honestly. Just in the dirt. Got overrun with grass.

I am planning a 4x4 of strawberries for next year. Cultivar suggestions?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Lyndeeloo, your bed is 2'x19' long?  That is huge!

I had ever bearers only at the old house, not real satisfying honestly.  Just in the dirt.  Got overrun with grass.  

I am planning a 4x4 of strawberries for next year.  Cultivar suggestions?

LOL, seems small to me, I still end up picking more at a local farm to make enough jam for gifts.

I heard that ever bearers tended to be small which was why I chose the June bearers.

I believe I have primarily Allstar and one other I can't recall, although with all the runners I've planted I have no idea which is which.    I'm not sure if they would do well in your region or not. There is a website that recommended varieties by state. I don't know how to link to it. Low tech human here.       strawberryplants.org I think.

lyndeeloo wrote:I believe I have primarily Allstar and one other I can't recall, although with all the runners I've planted I have no idea which is which.   

I have 4 very mixed together varieties...if they've all lived over the years. There's one that I need to cultivate more as the berries are so delicious...more so than the others. The only way to figure out which one it is would be to pull up a seat next to the bed and start 'testing' them...

...then mark with a ribbon or some thing. Can't wait!

I am happy! My green beans are up and out! These beans are only 6 days old. The package says they are purple till you cook them. This first pic makes them look huge.



This second pic shows them with a quarter leaning against the tree trunk.


I already have something eating on the leaves, but it isn't bad, yet. Rock


(If somebody knows how to rotate these pics, please PM me.)

Strawberries, we have i think what started out as 6 plants here, not much but something for the kids to keep an eye on. i think about moving them and adding more but it hasn't happened yet. the area i want to move them has a tree i want to remove next winter and the beds would be in the way of the equipment. But we are lucky to have a local farm down the hill that does pick your own for $4 a quart, which tends to average a pound and a half. They are not officially organic, but they use chemical free practices(they are so small they don't want to pay for the official label) and i never see them spraying like other local ones. They also sell potatoes and corn, so those don't get planted here. 

Another local farm today had their veggie 4 packs 5 for $10. so i replaced my dead stuff for cheap. they do this the beginning of june to get things out. so i will have to remember that for next year. i started planting but just too hot out there this afternoon to get too much in. it's suppose to cool down this week so i hope to have everything in before hubby leaves on sunday. that way i just have to water and watch for bugs.